It’s time to cut the NT public servants’ leave allowance, writes Phillippa Butt

SIX weeks annual leave for public servants, plus public holidays, is a ridiculous allowance, writes PHILLIPPA BUTT

Public servants should have their annual leave slashed by two weeks to bring them in line with most other workers Picture: iStock

THIS year, more than 21,000 Territorians will work for less than 60 per cent of the year.

Jealous? Keen to know how to get yourself one of those sweet gigs? Join the NT public service.

Because every 365 days, they spend 147 of them not working. And many of these people are paid handsomely for it.

Where do these figures come from? Well, the NT public service has leave entitlements that sit outside of industry standards.

Where most get four weeks annual leave, our public servants are getting six.

This is on top of the public holidays they’re entitled to. It also sits away from sick leave, personal leave and long service leave. Add those days on and some people would work for less than half the year.

Seriously, how do I get myself a piece of that?

The rest of the days they get off come from the 52 Saturdays and 52 Sundays in 2019.

Just to be clear, I’m not begrudging anyone their weekend, but when we consider many tradies work six day weeks, it gets harder to see how the public service can be entitled to so much additional time away from work.

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And don’t get me wrong, there are some public service workers who deserve every bit of their holidays.

But they’re already covered. Shift workers (in any job, not just the public service) always get extra leave.

That means our nurses, our fireys, our emergency services? They’re already being given the leave that they absolutely earn.

But the pencil pushers? The people who manage to cause traffic jams in our tiny cities come 4.30pm because it takes them just nine minutes to walk to their cars and they’ve definitely left right on time?

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Why are they getting six weeks annual leave? Plus public holidays?

Historically, the reason the NT public service got the extra weeks was to encourage Southerners to move north.

And that’s a valid reason.

But it’s not a valid reason when we consider how much debt the Territory is in. In last week’s Sunday Territorian, Chamber of Commerce NT chief executive Greg Bicknell suggested it was “time the archaic provision of six weeks annual leave in the public sector is brought back to industry standards”.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner has already shot it down. Why wouldn’t he? 15 per cent of Territory voters would be pretty mad if he cut their leave entitlements.

But the other 85 per cent? The business owners who work late into the night, just to make ends meet? The tradies working every Saturday while their friends are swimming at Litchfield? The retail and hospitality workers who cover all sorts of shifts?

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I reckon they’d be on board with saving the Territory some money and trimming the public service’s annual leave.

If not, they might be hand in their notice and putting their hand up for a Government gig.

Phillippa Butt is the NT News Weekend Features Editor